Paladin
by meeky311
Summary: A paladin, by definition is any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause. Bella, a coffee barista and Edward, a Seattle detective come together through a common goal, but end up getting a little more than they bargained for. Can they become the fierce defenders they need to be for the most noble cause of all...saving the world? Romance, suspense, humor and all of the above.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and no copyright infringement is intended.

This story is quite a bit different than S.H.I.T. It will have a little supernatural in it, some romance, suspense, drama and of course, humor.

Thanks to Dollybigmomma for offering up her amazing beta skills for me again. Read and enjoy!

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**Chapter 1:**

**PROLOGUE **

**BELLA**

I'd never given death much thought before. It was something I'd instinctually known was inevitable for everyone, so I figured there was no sense in dwelling on it.

It was a funny thing, if you really thought about it, though. If death was not a certainty, would we live our lives differently? Would we put ourselves in harms' way to help others, or ourselves? Would we throw caution to the wind and live life with reckless abandon?

There were probably a million different answers to this question. If you were Bella Swan, however, the answer was yes. I would live life differently. I'd put myself in harms' way, _and_ I'd do it with a smile on my face. Not for some sick, masochistic or even altruistic reasons, though. I just happened to have a lot of pent-up rage bottled inside me, and I was hell bent on vengeance.

At the age of sixteen, I was orphaned. My parents met their untimely demise at the hands of a low-life mugger, leaving me a ward of the state. That was the first time in my life that I had actually paid half a mind to the thought of death. Like it typically did, whether in absentia or in all its permanent glory; death changed my life irrevocably.

I spent the next two years in random foster homes, biding my time until I turned eighteen and could just go my own way. I wasn't beaten or abused like so many others, but that didn't do anything to lessen the bitter feelings of abandonment and the intense feelings of hatred towards people like the asshats who had put me in my current predicament…bad guys.

I was a good student and followed the rules. I kept my nose clean and flew under the radar for the most part. I managed to graduate from high school, get several scholarships to pay for college, a minimum-wage job at a coffee shop, and a tiny little apartment of my own. Life was starting to look up for me.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for a career, and I definitely had no aspirations of finding a man and settling down to have two-point-five kids and a picket fence just yet. I was actually quite content floating through life with no expectations of what I thought the future should hold.

Unfortunately, like most people, my future had been unknowingly decided for me. All I could do was hold on to my ass and enjoy the ride.

I am now twenty-one and this is the story of how I lived, died, loved, _and_ saved the world while I was at it.

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A/N: Just an FYI, I am not a huge fan of long winded A/N's, so don't expect any from me. Also, I don't do posting schedules because life is just to hectic to adhere to them, and then I'd be pissed off at myself for leading you guys on.

I love hearing what my readers think, so feel free to let me have it, good, bad or indifferent.

All that being said, I'll leave you to it.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and no copyright infringement is intended.

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**BELLA**

"Are you about done?" I asked Rosalie, as I finished washing up the last of the dishes for the night while she mopped.

"Yep! I'm ready to get the flock out of here, open a bottle of wine and forget about the mundane, boring-ass life I live."

"Come on, Rose, it could always be worse, you could have Jasper's life," I chided.

"You're right. Does that dude ever go out and do _anything_ fun?"

"Nope, I think he lives and breathes this coffee shop. I think he'd get a nervous tick if he was more than a hundred yards away from it," I joked.

Jasper was our manager at Buzzin' Beans, the coffee shop Rosalie and I worked for, and we both had apartments right above it, along with Jasper. He had repeatedly turned down any offers of after-work drinks or movie nights, stating that there was a documentary on the History Channel that he had been dying to watch or some other stupid shit. Dude really didn't have a life.

"Well, I'm done, so let's tell Jasper and get the hell out of here." I motioned for Rose to follow me towards the back office, where Jasper sat behind a computer crunching numbers.

"We're out of here," I said, as I poked my head in through the office door.

"Okay, girls, be safe, and I'll see you guys in the morning," Jasper called over his shoulder without even turning to look at us.

We walked out of the shop into the twilight, locking the front door behind us, and began our trek around the side of the building to the tall stairway that led to our apartments.

"So, what are you up to tonight, B?" Rose asked as she unlocked her door.

"It's Wednesday. I have Karate class."

"I should've known. Are you ever going to show me any of those ninja moves you're learning, or is the karate class just a cover for when you go out on hot dates and don't want to make me feel bad, since my loser-ass hasn't had a date in months?" she joked, but she really wasn't too far off base. Not with the date part, but my classes were definitely a cover.

"Ha-ha, bitch, you know I've got better things to do than swoon over hot pieces of ass, who I know will take the one and only thing they want from me and then bail. So not going there," I joked, but I didn't _really _know what I was missing out on. I had never actually had a date. The idea of letting someone close scared the hell out of me. They might figure out that I was different. That would be bad.

"Well, have fun. See you tomorrow," Rosalie called out, as she entered her apartment and closed the door.

I walked into my tiny apartment, which consisted of one room containing my bed, a small kitchenette and a gold velour couch that looked like it was from the seventies, but was just too comfortable for me to part with. There was a separate adjoining bathroom that was snug, but it had all the amenities, so I wasn't complaining.

I quickly stripped, threw on my black skinny jeans, black turtleneck and steel-toed boots, and then I grabbed a black ski mask, as I walked back out the door. I know, my outfit of choice made me look like I was getting ready to go and rob a bank, but I assure you, that was not what I did.

I stopped shit like that from happening.

I quietly prowled in the shadows of the high-rise buildings of downtown Seattle, heading for one of the rougher areas of town that a twenty-one-year-old girl should never venture into alone at night. It was still relatively early in the evening, but with the sun setting, there were plenty of dark places for me to lurk without being seen. I quickly found an alley with a dumpster situated pretty close to the street. I crouched down next to it and silently listened; waiting for anyone who might need my help. I didn't have to listen for long.

"Please, don't do this. I won't tell anyone, if you just let me go…I promise." The terrified voice of a woman pleading with someone broke through all of the other mindless chatter on the street. My ears perked up immediately, and I jumped into action.

I ran about three blocks down, following the sound of helpless whimpering. I could hear the rapid staccato of the woman's heart as I neared. I looked down the dimly-lit alley to see the poor woman pinned to the brick wall with a knife to her throat, as a greasy, pony-tailed asshole fumbled to unbutton his pants. It was obvious what his intent was. Unfortunately for him, his intended crime was the one I was least tolerant of, and I would definitely not be gentle with him.

Before he even had a chance to get his zipper down, I ran like a flash towards him and knocked him flat on his ass.

"It's not nice to pick on people smaller than you, asshole," I seethed. "You might want to think twice next time."

The stunned asshole scrambled to his feet just in time for my foot to make contact with his face. You could hear the sickening crunch as they connected, and then the subsequent deluge of blood from his nose flowed like a river down his face and onto his shirt.

"You bitch! I'll teach you some damn manners," he threatened, as he picked his knife up off of the ground next to him and came after me. Within a second, I had the knife held safely in my gloved hand, his arm twisted painfully behind his back, and his face was planted in the asphalt.

"I think you're the one who needs taught some manners. Didn't you ever learn that you don't take things that aren't yours unless offered? I seem to recall her very adamantly refusing to offer herself to you, yet you were going to take it anyways, weren't you?" I questioned the pathetic excuse for a human being.

"I'm sorry! I'll leave her alone, I swear! Just let me go!" Jackass was pleading, as I methodically increased the pressure and angle of my assault on his arm, pushing it into a very unnatural position. I could actually hear the tendons and ligaments straining to hang on to their last threads before snapping like a rubber band.

Jackass screamed out in agony, as every piece of connective tissue in his shoulder let go and popped out of its socket.

I quickly pulled my burn phone out of my pocket, dialed 911 anonymously and told them what I'd witnessed and where. I turned to the woman, who was standing in a daze against the brick wall, trembling violently.

"You'll be okay now. The police are on their way. He can't hurt you anymore," I put my arm around her shoulder to help deliver the message of sincerity I was trying to convey through my eyes.

"You must be an angel," the woman came out of her trance and smiled at me.

"No, I just like to see justice served," I said as I turned and sped away before the cops arrived.

This was my life. Every night, I sat in dark corners and alleyways, just waiting for the dregs of society to step up and do what their shitty upbringing had pre-disposed them to…violence and law breaking. There were a lot of them in Seattle, and they kept my nights pretty busy. Fortunately for me, I didn't need any sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and no copyright infringement is intended.

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**EDWARD**

"She strikes again," Emmett said, as he threw the increasingly growing file onto my desk.

"Really? What now?" I asked.

"Attempted rape, the perp now has a useless shoulder and a disfigured face. The vic says that a woman, wearing all black, a ski mask and smelling of coffee, swooped in out of nowhere, whooped his ass, told her everything would be alright, and then bolted," Emmett explained.

"Damn it! That's our girl alright. I knew I shouldn't have taken a night off," I bitched. "Was it the same M-O with the untraceable phone call to 911?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure we should keep trying to find her, though, Edward. She's doing a better job of putting the bad guys away than we are," Emmett joked, but he was half serious.

"You're probably right," I chuckled. "I just can't let this go, though. She's a non-commissioned citizen, and if she were to get hurt, it could come back on us. Whoever the Coffee Vigilante is, I need to find out. She could be a great asset to the force, if we could get her to join us properly," I reasoned.

The press had caught wind of the masked person who had been keeping the streets of Seattle safe for the last year and had dubbed them the "Coffee Vigilante," because all of the witnesses said the same thing…the vigilante smelled of coffee. The other thing that had peaked their interest was that this vigilante was a woman. All of the witnesses spoke of the slim but curvy figure she had and the mesmerizing brown eyes that peeked out from behind the holes of a black ski mask.

Over the last year, I had been obsessed with finding out who this amazing creature was. Every night I had free, I would stake out the seedy parts of town, hoping to catch a glimpse of this woman. Every night, she eluded me.

I would often be the first to the scene of a crime when she would anonymously call it in, only to be left with nothing. She would already have vanished by the time I'd get there every single time.

Being a detective for the SPD kept me pretty busy. There was always someone breaking the law, unfortunately. Being a detective had afforded me more time to work on my own agendas, which was good. Being a cop was very fulfilling, but I had my own personal vendetta to deal with.

I had been able to work my way up through the ranks pretty quickly, and I hadn't been a uniformed patrol officer for very long, thankfully. Since I'd made detective, the only case that had occupied more of my time than my sister's, was the Coffee Vigilante.

I'd like to say that I had worked my way through the ranks fair and square, but that would be a lie. I was different from other people, and I used it to my advantage. I needed the freedom and resources available to me to look for my sister. The investigators had told me years ago that it was a dead end. She had been gone too long to hold out hope that she was still alive, and they said we would just have to wait for her body to be found for some sort of closure.

After I told those insensitive pricks what I thought about their lack of tact, I swore to myself that I would find her somehow. That was why I'd joined the force, and that was why I used the fact that I was different to unfairly climb the ranks to my current position. I would find my sister, and I would figure out who this mysterious vigilante was, because she was apparently the key to finding her.

My sister, Alice, had been taken from her bedroom when she was eighteen. I had been sixteen at the time and sleeping right next door to her. I'd heard absolutely nothing that night. This was the thing that frustrated me the most. I had been right there and could have helped her, but I'd had no clue. My dad didn't handle her disappearance well and had more or less been a shut-in since then. That had been six years ago.

There had been no physical evidence left in her room. The only reason we knew she had been taken against her will was the state of disarray her room had been in. Pictures lay shattered on the floor, her dresser overturned along with her bed, not to mention a broken window…yet my father and I had heard nothing.

At the end of our driveway, they'd found Alice's headband with a huge spot of blood on it as well. DNA testing confirmed it was her blood, but they'd found nothing else. Not one single fingerprint or trace of DNA anywhere.

I hadn't had many leads to go on over the years, so I had been biding my time by picking through the minds of criminals, trying to figure out if any of them knew anything. Now I can assure you, picking through a criminal's mind was not a pleasant experience, but it had afforded me a few luxuries. There was the image of a pair of striking brown eyes that all of these criminals had in common and couldn't seem to get off their minds. I couldn't get them out of mine, either.

I often thought about the last conversation I'd had with Alice. She was trying to make me feel better about a girl I'd had a crush on in school who didn't know I existed.

_"Don't worry, Eddie boy. She's not the one for you anyways. You'll know her when you see her." Alice gently punched me in the shoulder to accentuate her point. "You're going to need her more than you realize, and so will I," she stared off dreamily as she spoke._

_"What are you talking about?" I asked._

_"Nothing," she shook her head, as if trying to rid it of a nasty thought. "Just be on the lookout for a pair of brown eyes that remind you of coffee," she said cryptically, as she walked to her bedroom and closed the door._

"I think we should go and question the witness, Emmett, see if she can tell us anything the others haven't," I suggested nonchalantly, while hoping he didn't notice my excitement to get another peek at our mystery girl.

"Dude, if I didn't know any better, judging by the look on your face, I'd say you have a thing for this vigilante chick," Emmett teased. He had absolutely no idea how close he was to the truth.

"Come on, Em, you know better than that. I don't do crushes. Women are superficial, vapid creatures who want nothing more than to get their claws into you and control every aspect of your life. No and thank you!"

This was my standard response when relationships or dating ever came up. Most of the guys thought I was the "hit it and quit it" type, which I let them believe. It was just easier than explaining to them the ugly thoughts that would run through a woman's mind constantly.

When I was eighteen, I figured out just how different I was. I thought I was going crazy at first; hearing voices in my head and all. The truth was that I actually _was_ hearing voices in my head. Other people's thoughts, to be exact.

I mentioned it to my father, because I was freaked out and didn't know what else to do…but he was ready to have me committed. I quickly learned that this was a secret that needed to be kept between me, myself and I. I hadn't told a soul since, and I didn't plan to. It had been an unfortunate hindrance to my love life, though. I could never get close to anyone. The second I thought I could possibly be interested in a woman, an errant thought would flit through their mind, which would totally repulse me.

"Alright, Ed, let's go question this witness," Emmett said. _Although I know what you really want is to find the vigilante and get your groove on…bow chicka wow wow! _Emmett thought afterwards. I chuckled to myself. Emmett really was a good guy. His thoughts were always funny, and he genuinely cared about people and wanted to do good. He was a great partner and a great friend. I wished I could share my secret with him.

We drove downtown to the crappy apartment of Heidi Johnson, the woman who had almost been raped, but had been saved by our town hero. According to the police report, she was a bartender and was heading in for her shift, when our perp, Riley Biers, pulled her into the alley.

I knocked on the door. "SPD, Mrs. Johnson, we have a few more questions for you."

_Christ! What do these assholes want to know now? I don't have any fucking donuts, so they can get on their fucking way quickly at least, _Heidi thought as she approached the door.

_"Holy shit! I'll give you guys a donut to eat. I'm glad I got it waxed last week! Yee-haw and come to mommy!" s_he thought as she peeked out the crack in the door.

Now considering the situation she had found herself in last night, you would have thought her mind wouldn't immediately go there. Unfortunately, more often than not, they did…hence why I didn't date.

"Hello, Ma'am, we just have a couple more questions, if you don't mind," Emmett gave her a cheeky smile and batted his eyelashes at her a little. She was putty in his hands.

"Of course! Come in," she opened the door for us. _You can both _cumin_ me all night long. He-he._

I shrugged off her lewd thoughts. I was quite used to them by now. By society's standards, Emmett and I were both considered good-looking guys. Almost everywhere we went, more than one indecent thought was thrown our way by both women and men. The men's thoughts grossed me out more than they should. It was one of the unfortunate side effects to my ability…I could see people's mental images as well, and let me just say that men were much more graphic in their visuals…just…ew.

"I'm not sure what else I can tell you. I told the officers everything I know last night," she spoke in a saccharine-sweet voice. _Now if you want me to scream your names all night long, just let me know, stud muffins. We can have a Heidi sandwich. _She started imagining herself in the middle of Emmett and I. Unfortunately, I could see her mental picture of us all naked, where I was in front, and Emmett was pulling up the rear. I shuddered a little, as I tried to focus back on our conversation and not the three-way playing out in her mind.

"We actually wanted to talk to you about the woman who came to your rescue last night," I replied while trying to hold down the bile threatening to rise out of my stomach. She now had Emmett and I doing inappropriate things to each other in her mind.

"Oh. Well, there's not much to tell, I guess. She came out of nowhere, kicked his ass and then left." _She was my angel. _Heidi's thoughts instantly shifted from perverted three-ways and back to the subject at hand. I concentrated hard on her mental image of the masked woman. This was why I liked questioning the witnesses. They all had the mental image of her burned into their memories perfectly. It was like a drug to me; to see those eyes staring at me through their minds' eye. I was amazed at the depth they held and couldn't wait for my next fix.

"Yes, we've read your statement. We just wanted to jog your memory and see if there were any details about this woman you might've missed," I asked nicely. It was easy to get women to bend to my will, when I turned on the charm.

"Okay…um…" Heidi continued to think about the whole ordeal, while I sifted through her thoughts, trying to figure out if there were any more clues. I saw a streak of black flash past her, her attacker on the ground, with the vigilante hunched over him, wrenching his arm torturously far behind his back. These were all things I'd seen before, unfortunately.

"Any small detail, no matter how insignificant, can help," I prodded, trying to get her to open up her memory a little more.

_She was so fast and strong. She must work out. When her shirt rode up in the back, I could see her muscles straining under that tattoo…_

"Yes! Now you're on the right track!" I got excited, catching a glimpse of a side of this beautiful woman that I had not yet seen.

"But I haven't said anything," Heidi replied bewildered.

"Uh, I was just trying to encourage you. Your face looked like you might've remembered something," I quickly tried to cover up my mistake. I didn't make them often, but I was pretty good at covering it up when I did.

"Oh…yeah, I was just remembering that she had a tattoo on her lower back. It looked like maybe a lizard or a dragon of some sort. She was very fast and strong, too. I couldn't believe what she did to that ass who'd jumped me. She took him down in seconds…like a wild animal or something, but she had the kindest eyes I've ever seen and smelled like a warm vanilla latte. She made me feel safe." Heidi wrapped her arms around her torso for comfort. "Please don't get her in trouble for helping. She's an angel."

"Don't worry, that's not our intention," I comforted her by placing my hand on her shoulder, just as I'd seen her "angel" do in her memories. "We just want to make sure she stays safe, too."

_Oh my…you can touch me any time, Hottie McHotter-than-shit. _

I flinched, pulling my hand back quickly, because I could see the naked images of Emmett and me flitting back to the surface of her minds' eye.

"Thanks, Heidi. We'll get out of your hair now." I quickly got up, signaling Emmett to follow me.

I had a quick case of the heebie-jeebies, shaking and wiggling violently, as I walked out into the hall, trying to dispel the nasty images from my brain. Don't get me wrong, I thought Em was a great guy, but there were just some things one did not need to see me doing to him or with him.

"Dude, what's up with the Wiggle's dance?" Emmett chuckled from behind me.

"Chick just gave me creepy vibes. I felt like she wanted to eat us for dinner."

"She seemed fine to me," Emmett shrugged his shoulders. "You're the one with the 99.99% accurate gut, though, so I'll just keep my mouth shut."

My ability had given me the upper hand in a lot of cases. My saving grace was to say that I'd had a hunch, so whenever I read a thought and blurted something out that I shouldn't have known like a dumbass…I had a hunch. It had worked for me so far and had garnered me quite the badass reputation as well.

"So, what now, oh psychic partner of mine?" Emmett chided.

"I think we should stop by a tattoo parlor," I replied.

"You don't even know what the tattoo looked like, Ed. What good will a tattoo parlor do?" Emmett questioned.

"I have a hunch, Em. Trust me."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and no copyright infringement is intended.

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**BELLA**

Thursday was pretty uneventful. I came home at about four o'clock that morning from my night job of cleaning up the streets of Seattle, watched an NCIS marathon on USA for a while, and then I left for the coffee shop to start my morning shift.

I had two classes in the middle of the day at the University of Washington, and then I went back to the coffee shop for my evening shift. It was all boring, mundane and routine.

I think that was how I was able to balance my daytime and nocturnal activities. My nighttime trysts were anything but mundane. I got to kick, flip, twist, poke, prod, and pound bad guys all night long. Some put up a good fight and made it a little more fun, but most didn't even have a chance. I was that good.

"So how was karate class?" Rosalie asked, as we sat and waited out the last boring hour of work.

"It was good. I didn't learn anything new, though," I replied with a shoulder shrug.

"Do you think I could come to class with you sometime? I think it'd be good to learn a few self-defense moves."

"Um…it's kind of an elite group. They don't really teach new guys," I lied quickly. The truth was I'd never taken a karate lesson in my life. I didn't need to. I could see something and instantly know how to do it. I just watched a few Kung Foo movies, and Jackie Chan ones, too, because those were some funny shit, and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am…I was a fucking ninja.

"Oh, okay," Rosalie looked dejected. "I think I'm just bored. We should go do something tonight, B."

"Like what? You know I don't do the club scene, and the last time you did, the whole _Royce_ incident happened." Rosalie flinched at the mention of _his_ name. I felt bad and quickly tried to make up for my insensitivity. "So, please, tell me what kind of fuckery you had in mind, bee-otch?" I smirked.

"I don't know, just…something. I feel like I let that bastard take my social life away," she said with a tear finding its way out of the corner of her eye.

Rosalie was an unfortunate victim, just like the one I'd rescued last night. I hadn't been there for Rosalie, though. She had gone out clubbing with some brainless twits from school. They ditched her to go get their glory holes snaked like the nasty skanks they were, while Rose was attacked by a drunken douche-nozzle by the name of Royce King, outside of the club. Fortunately for her, he had been too drunk to get it up. The downside to that was that he hadn't been too drunk to beat her face to a pulp. That particular night, I had been kicking ass on the wrong side of town, and she'd had no one there to protect her. She was found unconscious the next morning in the alley with Royce passed out next to her. Stupid fucker didn't even have enough sense to run away. He was going to be in jail for a long time now, luckily. _Man, I hope he's someone's bitch._

Feeling the guilt creep up once again, because I hadn't been there when she'd needed me, I relented.

"Fine, let's go get margaritas and do some karaoke at the Mexican place around the corner."

"Yay!" she clapped and jumped up and down a few times. It was the least I could do to see my friend smile like that again.

A few minutes later, I heard the bell above the door chime, indicating someone had come in.

"Hi, welcome to Buzzin…" My voice tapered off before finishing my sentence.

The walking orgasm of a man who had just come into the shop was tall and built, with green eyes, broad shoulders and the sexiest head of reddish-blondish-brownish hair I'd ever seen. I had an instant cloner (clit-boner) as soon as I saw him.

He stopped mid-stride, as he came through the door. His eyes bore into mine so intensely that I thought I was going to spontaneously combust from the heat of it. Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and he cocked his head to the side without breaking eye contact, as if he was trying to listen to something off in the distance.

"Sir? Is…is everything alright? I stammered once I'd regained my composure.

"Oh, sorry, I…uh…just thought I heard something. It was nothing. Nothing at all," the sexy guy stuttered like Rain Man.

"Okaaay. What can I get you?" I asked in the best casual voice I could muster, but it really just sounded like I was nervous and trying to be casual. I guess that kind of backfired on me. I couldn't help it, though. I might not get around much, but that didn't mean I didn't have urges, and this particular guy seemed to be bringing them all to the surface at once.

"Ummm, how about a…vanilla latte?" he stated as more of a question than an order.

"Are you sure about that?" I teased back, clenching my kegels in anticipation of hearing his masculine voice again.

"Uh…yep, I'm sure." He shot me a dazzling smile that made my knees wobble a bit.

"Coming right up," I replied, as I turned towards the espresso machine to get started on his latte. My comment brought up visuals of him cumming right up something else, and it made me smile. Such a pretty thought.

As I was frothing the milk, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him looking at me like he was trying to listen for something off in the distance again.

"Are you okay? Are you hard of hearing or something?" I blurted out of nowhere. In retrospect, it was a bit of an insensitive question, but he didn't seem bothered by it.

"I'm great," his dazzling smile came out to play again. "I'm Edward, by the way."

_Well, there's strike one I guess. What kind of name is Edward?_

"Nice to meet you, Edward, I'm Bella, and here's your vanilla latte." I handed him his cup and flashed him my best smile, hoping it wasn't obvious what I was thinking.

"Thanks, Bella. What do I owe you?"

"It's on the house, _Edward_," I smiled sweetly. "I haven't seen you in here before, and we like to give everyone their first drink for free. If you like it, make sure you come back in for another," I lied easily, hoping to lure him back into my coffee lair again. The truth was Jasper would flip his shit if he knew we were giving coffee away, but that didn't usually stop me.

Edward smirked, as he took a big whiff of the coffee. Closing his eyes, he inhaled the aroma and then took a small sip. "Oh, I'll definitely be back," he winked, as he turned around and walked back out of the door.

Holy 4th of July weenie roast! Was it hot in here? I think my loins were on fire! I might just have to re-think this whole not dating thing. Just one time wouldn't hurt, would it?

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A/N: I'm dying to hear what you guys think!


	5. Chapter 5

Here's Edwards take on the coffee shop encounter...enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

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**EDWARD**

Emmett and I headed towards the area of town where most of the incidents had occurred. There were several tattoo parlors in the vicinity, and I planned on hitting them all, until I found what I was looking for. It was a longshot, but I was willing to try anything, if it would help me figure out the identity of the woman who owned the set of eyes that'd had me captivated for almost a year now.

"I still don't understand what we're doing, Ed. You can't possibly believe we'll be able to find this girl based off of the description of a tattoo. You have no idea what it actually looks like!" Emmett grumbled, as he followed me down the street to the first tattoo parlor.

"I know what you're saying, Emmett. If this woman got a tattoo recently, which I'm pretty sure she has, since none of the other witnesses mentioned it, then someone is bound to remember it," I reasoned, hoping he would leave it at that. He didn't need to know that I was going to pick through the brains of everyone we talked to, in hopes of finding those beautiful brown eyes in someone's memories.

"If you say so, dude," Emmett acquiesced. He was less than pleased, though, if his thoughts were any indication.

_Big stupid waste of time! I could be playing Angry Birds back at the station right now. But noooooo, Ed and his big stupid plans have to put a big stupid kink in _my_ day. He better be right about this. Shit! I probably won't even be able to sneak home and watch Days of Our Lives during lunch now. This blows!_

I just ignored his internal ramblings as best as I could and continued on towards the first tattoo parlor. It was an old, run-down building on the corner of one of the more seedy areas of downtown Seattle. We walked in, and the smell of vomit and urine permeated the completely un-sterile-looking room.

"Dude, my breakfast burrito is about to come back out and say hello right now," Emmett grumbled while making a dry heaving motion. "This place smells like my granny's bedpan."

I nodded at Emmett while twisting my face in disgust. "You're right, Em. It freaking reeks in here. I don't think our vigilante would be caught dead in a place like this. Let's move on to the next one."

"Thank you!" Emmett threw his hands in the air in excitement.

We walked back out into the fresh air and relaxed a little, now that our breakfasts were no longer threatening to reappear. I made a mental note to put in a call to the State Health Department about this place as soon as we got back to the station.

We visited several more shops to no avail. We questioned all of the employees, asking if they remembered doing any lizard tattoos in the last few months, but nobody remembered any being done. I was able to verify this by digging through their mental images, and not finding anything resembling the tattoo I'd seen through Heidi Johnson's memory.

I was getting frustrated, as was Emmett, by the time we made it to the last shop. He was still commiserating about missing Days of Our Lives in his head, while complaining about being hungry and tired, out loud. It was like working with a three-year-old sometimes, but I still wouldn't trade him for the world. Not only was he my partner, he was my best and _only_ friend…so I put up with his whiny ass.

"This is the last place, and then I'll take you out for ice cream, okay?" I placated him like the three-year-old he was acting like.

"Fine, but I want chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream this time, so you'd better not hold out on me, you big ol' cheapskate."

"Whatever you want, champ," I ruffled his hair and chuckled at his antics.

We walked into the last shop, which thankfully was clean, smelled nice, _and _had an attractive brunette sitting behind the front counter. She had her hair swept up neatly and was wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. She was a bit of a contradiction, as she looked very professional from the neck up, yet below it she wore a black fitted t-shirt with a skull on it, tight black jeans, a studded dog collar, and had black fingernails.

_Meeeeeoooowwww! I sure hope you came in to get a tattoo on that fine ass of yours, 'cuz I sure as hell wouldn't mind taggin' it for ya. Yummy!_

"Can I help you gentlemen?" Catwoman asked sweetly, as if she hadn't just been visualizing one hand fondling my ass cheek while the other was stabbing it repeatedly with a needle.

"We were wondering if you've had a woman come in for a lizard tattoo in the last few months. We believe she may have some information on a person of interest in a case we're working on," I responded in my no-nonsense tone, while flashing her my badge.

"Hmmm, let me think." After giving up on the mental ass molestation, several images of tattoos and people's faces flashed through her mind. I waited patiently, as she sifted through them all. Some were of dragons, frogs, and even snakes, but so far, no lizards.

"You say it's a woman?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am, she's about five feet four inches tall, one hundred twenty pounds and has brown eyes," I replied. "That's all of the information we have on her besides the tattoo."

Her mind instantly pulled up an image of the exact lizard tattoo I had seen earlier. Her thoughts drifted to the owner of the tattoo, whom she seemed to think fit the description perfectly. I held my breath, as the vision of my brown-eyed beauty came into my mind's eye without the obstruction of the black ski mask. She was stunning.

"Oh! Duh, I think you might be talking about Bella. I'm not sure why I didn't think of her first," she stated with excitement. "She just got this last month!"

The girl quickly flipped through a binder with photos of tattoos they had done. She found what she was looking for and turned the binder around for me to look at. Of course, I already knew, but I had to play the game for Emmett's sake.

"Look, Emmett! It's just like that woman described," I pointed to the picture. "It's at least worth looking into a little further, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess," Emmett pouted.

_Great! Now I'll never get my ice cream!_

"Can you tell us how we can get in touch with this Bella?" I asked sweetly.

"Absolutely! She actually works at the coffee shop around the corner," she said with a little too much enthusiasm. "I go in there every day!"

"Excellent. I really appreciate your help, Miss…" I trailed off.

"It's Webber. Angela Webber and I'm glad I could help," she smiled genuinely and held her hand out for me to shake. "I hope she's not in any trouble. She's super nice and always gives me free coffee," she said with concern.

"No, she's not in any trouble at all," I assured her. "We just have some questions for her. Thanks again for your help."

Emmett and I turned and walked out of the tattoo parlor and headed for the coffee shop right around the corner. I'd been by it a thousand times, but I was not really a coffee drinker, so I'd never been in there before.

"Do you really think this is going to be our girl, Ed?" Emmett questioned sincerely.

"I don't know, Emmett, but we at least have to look into it," I lied.

I knew for a fact this was our girl. I'd seen her whole face through Angela's thoughts. Those beautiful eyes of hers, combined with the rest of the package, was more than I could resist. She was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen.

"So what's the plan then?" Emmett asked.

"You hang back, Em. I'm going to go in and order a coffee. I want to feel her out a bit and see what we're dealing with."

Emmett agreed and waited outside, as I entered the little coffee shop. I was greeted by the brown-eyed beauty behind the counter, her melodic voice trailing off as our eyes locked from across the room.

She was more mesmerizing in person than I could have imagined. I couldn't breathe, feel or think for what felt like an eternity, as I took her all in. My eyes were finally gazing upon what only my mind had been privy to. I was dying to know what her thoughts were like. If she was half as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, then I would be done for.

I opened my mind back up, since it had apparently closed up shop the moment I'd seen her. I started sifting through the thoughts I was hearing and trying to pinpoint hers. There was nobody else in the coffee shop, and the only other nearby thoughts I heard were coming from behind a wall partition, where I could see someone washing dishes. She was thinking about margaritas.

I cocked my head to the side and tried harder to listen for her, to no avail. Her thoughts were silent. She looked concerned and asked if I was okay. She probably thought I was a mental patient with the way I was looking at her and stuttering my responses.

She asked what I wanted, still looking warily at me, and she sounded a little flustered, but held herself together well, with an air of confidence, and just a bit of spunk.

It took me a second to get my bearings. There was just too much going on in my head. I was finally face to face with the Coffee Vigilante, I couldn't hear her thoughts, and my pants felt like they were suddenly two sizes too small. It was too much to deal with all at once.

I finally managed to spit out my order, remembering that she had asked me a question, and she teased me for my behavior. Given my inability to behave like a normal human being at the moment, I wasn't surprised by the teasing. Her playful words did help me to relax a bit, though.

She turned and immediately went to work on my drink, and I tried again, in vain, to listen for her thoughts. She either didn't have a single thought in her mind, or she was immune to my ability. She was still silent to me.

I must have looked like an idiot, because she interrupted my concentration again, asking if I was hard of hearing. I realized that I was probably acting a little _too_ strange, and given what I knew she was capable of, I suddenly feared that she might kick my ass if I didn't get my shit together.

I smiled again, reassuring her I was fine, and introduced myself, trying to deflect from my weirdness. She smiled back at me and told me her name as well, as she handed me the cup. I tried to appear normal on the outside, while I was freaking out like a drama queen on the inside, just because this woman had smiled at me.

She wouldn't take my money, giving me some line about new customers getting free coffee, but the way she was looking at me now had me doubting that anything other than the Cullen charm was getting me a freebie. I smirked at her, as I took a big whiff of my cup, closing my eyes as I inhaled the sweet aroma of rich coffee and vanilla beans. I took a small sip to see if it tasted as good as it smelled, and she challenged me to return if I liked it.

"Oh, I'll definitely be back," I declared as I turned and walked back out the door. I had to get out of there, before I said or did anything else to make an ass out of myself.

"Was it her?" Emmett asked, even though he was thinking this had been a big waste of time still.

"I think it was her, Emmett. I want to stake her out tonight and see what she does."

"You're serious?" Emmett was incredulous now. "What makes you so sure it was her?"

"I just have a gut feeling," I replied with my usual response for when I would go out on a limb, with no obvious reason as to why.

Tonight, I planned to watch her every move.

* * *

A/N: Let me know your thoughts!


	6. Chapter 6

**BELLA**

After closing up the coffee shop, Rose and I went up to our apartments to change for our _wild _night of karaoke and margaritas. I was not a very flashy type, so my idea of dressing up to go out was a pair of skinny jeans and a t-shirt. If I was feeling exceptionally girly, I might even wear ballet flats instead of my usual steel-toed boots. Tonight was not a girly night, though.

I'd found that I got propositioned a lot less when I went out, if I looked more like a thug than a girl. It really just ruined my night when I had to open up a can of whoop-ass on assholes who didn't know how to take no for an answer. Tonight, jeans and ass-kickin' boots were my outfit of choice. I pulled a tight, black hoodie on, brushed my hair, and I was good to go.

Rose was a different story, though. She was one of "those" girls. After an hour in front of the mirror, a closet full of clothes strewn about her room because she couldn't decide what to wear, and a nose-violating assortment of perfumes were sprayed, she _might_ be ready to go.

I walked the three steps across the hall to Rose's door. She opened it quickly and instantly glared at me.

"I just don't understand why you don't put a little more effort into your looks, especially when you're going out for a night on the town," Rose commiserated while looking over my attire for the night.

"I don't understand why it matters. I'm not looking for any attention, and I like to be comfortable," I answered truthfully. "If someone likes me, I'd rather they liked me for me, not some Barbie-wannabe version of me."

"I know, I know," she rolled her eyes. "You've told me a thousand times already. I just don't think you understand the confidence and self-respect that can be gained by taking pride in the way you look…It _feels_ good."

"Blah, blah, blah. It's all a bunch of horse shit! An hour in front of a mirror, make-up, curlers, tweezers, nor a Brazilian wax have ever made me feel any better about myself. If anything, they cause me _more_ distress," I rolled my eyes at her ridiculous assessment of playing dress-up.

She just rolled her eyes right back at me, as she shut and locked her door. We silently began our trek towards the restaurant. The silence was welcome, however short-lived.

"I just think, if you put forth a little more effort, guys like the one who came into the shop earlier would start paying attention a little more seriously," Rosalie broke the welcomed silence. "I saw the way you were looking at him, and if I'm not mistaken, he was looking right back at you the same way," she smirked, knowing she'd hit the nail on the head.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I feigned ignorance.

"Yes, you do. I've never seen 'The Unflappable Bella Swan' flustered by the presence of a man before…ever."

"Fine! He was totally hot, and I would've tapped that shit ten ways from Sunday if given the opportunity!" I shouted. "But guys that hot always _know_ they're hot. I _hate_ big-headed pricks."

"That's too bad. I kind of _like_ pricks with big heads," Rosalie snickered.

"Ha-ha. That's very _punny,_" I deadpanned.

We finished walking the last few blocks, giggling at our sexual innuendos, puns and the playful banter between us. Despite what she'd been through in life, Rose was a funny, smart-assed, witty, and loyal person. She was successful in putting me in a good mood by the time we got there, thankfully. Rose had always had that effect on me, though. She was a great friend, and I was very thankful to have her in my life. When everyone else you knew and loved had left you, you had to hold on to those who were left.

"Let's get our drink on!" Rose hooted with a small fist-pump, as we walked into the lounge of the small Mexican restaurant.

"Relax, chica, the tequila's not going anywhere," I chided.

"Shut up, party pooper, I'm ready to get shit-faced, and I'm not letting you rain on my parade!" Rosalie turned to the bartender, "Señor! Dos margaritas and two shots of Patron, por favor!"

"Nice Spanglish, dork," I teased.

She just ignored me and started dancing in place to the horrendous rendition of _Baby Got Back_ someone was singing in the background.

The bartender placed our drinks down in front of us with a thump, splashing liquor onto the polished bar. "Drink up, party pooper!" Rosalie clanked her glass to mine, as she threw back the shot in a quick gulp.

I followed suit and quickly downed mine as well. We drank four more shots, in quick succession, as we sipped on our margaritas. Rosalie was waiting for the liquid courage to come out, so she would have the balls to grab a karaoke mic. I, however, would not be going anywhere near that mic tonight, for the health and well-being of everyone around me.

"Are you drunk enough to sing yet, beeotch!" Rose slurred.

"Nope, but you look like you are," I smiled at her toasted-looking face. "Get your ass up there and sing me some Alanis. I need some help with my man-hating abilities right now."

"I know! Pretty boy from earlier has you all twitterpated," Rosalie agreed, as she made her way over to the karaoke guy to put her song in. While I sat at the bar, waiting for her to return, I couldn't help the feeling that I was being watched. My skin tingled, and every hair on my body was standing on end. It wasn't a creepy feeling…just weird.

I discreetly glanced around the bar. It wasn't packed by any means, but there were a lot of people in there. I stopped scanning the room, as a familiar face was looking back at me from a corner booth. The light was dim, but I could still make out the features of one of the most gorgeous faces I'd ever seen.

Without a second thought, I got up and walked over to his booth.

"Fancy seeing you here, Edward," I smirked. "How was that coffee?"

"The coffee was quite impressive, I must say," he smirked right back.

I was elated to see him again, and that was seriously unnerving to me. I had to play this cool, but everything about this man screamed at me to jump his bones…I'd have to tread very carefully.

"Are you stalking me?" I joked. "If you wanted to see me again, all you had to do was ask." I mentally face-palmed myself, as I realized just how deranged and desperate I sounded. He probably got shit like that thrown at him on a daily basis.

His face paled for a split second, and then he quickly donned a bright, genuine smile. "Perhaps I'm just shy when it comes to talking to beautiful women."

_Ha! What a load of crap. There's no way such a fine piece of man-meat is shy. _

"Nice line, Casanova," I snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "Who's your friend?" I pointed to the big burly guy sitting next to him. It was probably rude of me to barge right in like I owned the place, but something about this guy made me forget the fact that I was an uptight prude, who didn't do anything for fun except use bad guys for a punching bag. I was really out of my comfort zone here, but I was workin' it.

"This is my friend, Emmett," Edward gestured to the big dude next to him, "And Emmett, this is Bella, the beautiful coffee barista who made my latte earlier."

"It's nice to meet you, Bella," Emmett held his hand out for me to shake. "Eddie here hasn't shut up about you all night. I was about to gnaw my own ears off if I had to listen to one more second of it," he laughed.

Edward turned three shades of red and smacked Emmett on the back of his head loudly. "Shut up!" he hissed under his breath.

I was instantly at ease, knowing that he might have had an attraction to me, too. I had been very careful and guarded when it came to romantic relationships in my life. It had been necessary, to make sure nobody found out about me, but it also made for a very lonely and sexually-frustrated existence. I figured I could bend the rules…just once. I would just have to cross my fingers and hope that he didn't figure me out.

"Hey, Biz-natch! Who are the hotties?" Rosalie came up from behind, slurring like a lush. "Oh, hey! I remember yoooouuuu! You're Mr. Hottie latte guy! Bella sooooo wants to have your babies!"

It was my turn to smack Rosalie in the back of the head now. She was drunk and had absolutely no verbal filter happening at the moment. I was fortunate in that I could drink as much as I wanted, and it didn't affect me at all. I could make my body do just about anything, including metabolize alcohol at accelerated rates. Unfortunately, I had to play like I was at least a little bit drunk, seeing as I'd had four shots of tequila, and two margaritas. I couldn't let Rose, or anybody else, get suspicious.

"Shut up, skank!" I teased, slurring a little, as my hand connected with her head playfully. I chanced a look at Edward, hoping the mortification I was feeling wasn't increased tenfold with a look of disdain coming my way. What I saw surprised me. He was looking at me in what I could only describe as awe and admiration, and I couldn't look away.

"Hello there, pretty lady. Would you guys like to join us?" Emmett stood and kissed Rosalie's hand, interrupting the staring contest I had going on with Edward.

"You bet your ass we would!" Rosalie knocked Emmett down and jumped into his lap, her arms winding around his neck, and she pulled his face straight down into her cleavage.

"Rosalie Lillian Hale! Get your ass off of him!" I used her full name to get her attention. Her actions were getting _way_ too forward for my liking, and she was going to find herself in trouble again if she didn't tone that shit down. I attempted to pull her off of Emmett's lap.

"Did you just three-name me, hoochie?" Rose demanded, as she struggled to stay where she was.

"Yes, I did. You're acting like a child, so I'm treating you like one. Now get up!"

She conceded, and we pulled two chairs up to the other side of their booth, giving ourselves a little space. I probably would have lost my mind if I sat right next to Edward.

We did the standard "getting to know you" conversations, and discovered that Edward and Emmett were partners on the SPD. They were out relaxing after a long day of putting bad guys away. It was most definitely a line of work that I could appreciate.

The more we talked, the more I liked. He was a good person, with good morals and a fuck-hot body. What more did one need?

Eventually, Rose got a little too inebriated, and we had to call it a night. I pulled her off of Emmett's lap once again. She had been attempting to give him hickeys for the last half hour, but he hadn't protested, so Edward and I let them be while we talked. It was the inappropriate movements and noise level they were producing towards the end which caused us to put an end to our evening.

"This was fun," I smiled and pulled Rose into my side while trying to say goodnight to Edward.

"It was. Maybe we can do it again sometime…just you and me?" he asked shyly.

"I'd like that," I whispered like a swoony teenager. Then, we did more teenager-y shit and exchanged phone numbers. As cheesy as it all was, you couldn't have beat the smile off of my face if you'd tried.

As I walked away from that restaurant, with Rose half-asleep and clinging to me, an errant thought occurred to me. As sweet as Edward was, and being a cop, I was extremely surprised that he didn't offer to walk us home. It was not like I needed the protection, but he didn't know that.

_I guess nobody's perfect…even if I thought he was._

Rose and I stumbled down the street towards our apartment rather loudly. Rose couldn't shut up about 'Mr. Dimples' tonight, as she had so aptly nicknamed Emmett. It was well after midnight, though, and the scum of the city were lurking around every corner we turned.

I tried to ignore the cat-calls and lewd comments directed towards us, as I focused on getting Rosalie home without incident. Of course, that was too much to ask for tonight.

"What are two pretty little things like you doing out at this hour all alone?" a skeevy asshole stepped in front of us, blocking our path. "You should be more responsible," he condescendingly scolded us.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll get the fuck out of our way," I hissed in a low threatening voice.

"Oooohhh, a feisty one, that'll just make it all the more fun," skeevy asshole said with his face so close to mine, I could smell the stench of whisky and cigarettes on his breath. He reached up and ran a finger slowly down my cheek.

If Rosalie hadn't been with me, and we hadn't been out on the street where thirty people could witness it, I would have torn this fucker in half for even thinking about touching me. I couldn't risk exposure, though. I had to play it cool.

"Fuck off and leave us alone," I pushed him aside with a little more force than he was expecting, causing him to stumble roughly to the side. This seemed to infuriate him, so he quickly caught his footing and rushed back in front of us.

"Now don't you go running off on me, we were just getting started," he threatened. All pretenses of playfulness were gone.

I quickly looked around, spotting a dark alley nearby that would work just fine for what I needed to do. "Fine, I'll play," I conceded and watched his face quickly morph from sinister to surprised.

"Good. I'm glad you're not going to make this harder than it needs to be," he seemed pleased with my recent change in attitude.

I carefully sat Rosalie down against to the building we were standing next to. She was 99% comatose and had no clue what was going on. I stood up and looked at the douche who thought it was okay to pick on women, and signaled for him to follow me into the alley.

"Is this what you wanted?" I asked, as I became shrouded in the darkness of the alley. "You've got me all alone. Whatever are you going to do to me?" I taunted.

"I can think of a few things," he said as he walked towards me with a purpose.

"Well, let's get this show on the road then," I huffed, sounding bored. This idiot had no idea what was waiting for him. Just by looking at me, with my small frame and doe eyes, one would think I was meek and timid and couldn't defend myself. I used this to my advantage frequently.

You could tell he didn't quite know what to make of me. He approached me cautiously at first. I backed away from him slightly, curling my shoulders inward, giving him the impression that he _actually_ frightened me a little.

"You put up a good front, but I can tell how scared you _really_ are, little girl." The creeper took the bait and kept stalking closer toward me. Little did he know, I was only waiting for him to commit a crime against me, before I unleashed hell on him. I happened to have a very firm policy of only attacking if necessary. I couldn't predict the future, so I didn't make a habit of punishing those who hadn't _actually_ done anything wrong yet. This piece of shit was _sure _to follow through, though, so I was just biding my time.

"W-what are you going to do to me?" I asked again, cowering like a scared little girl this time, playing my role and enticing him even more to take advantage of me.

"Like I said, I have plenty of ideas, but I'd rather show than tell," he raised his hand, running his fingers gently across my face again. I shivered purposely in response.

"P-please don't hurt me," I whimpered. This only prompted him to violently grab a fistful of my hair, wrenching my head back and slamming me into the brick wall behind us. I could feel his erection pressing into my side, and blood dripping down the side of my face from where my head had made contact with the rough bricks. That was all I needed.

"It's not nice to pick on girls, you worthless piece of shit," I spoke calmly, with a menacing smile on my face. "Someone should probably teach you a lesson."

"It doesn't look like you're in a position to teach _any_ lessons today, little girl," asshole pulled harder on my hair, craning my head back even further to demonstrate his point. He leaned in close and inhaled deeply against my neck. "You smell divine. I can't wait for a taste."

I almost threw up in my mouth, as this dick-wad attempted to violate me. It wasn't his actions so much as the fact that he smelled like the ass-end of a water buffalo. If that didn't give someone the dry-heaves, I didn't know what would.

"I should warn you," I interrupted his sniffing, "Things aren't always what they seem, you stupid waste of fucking space."

I quickly reached behind me and pried his fingers out of my hair and proceeded to tighten my grip to the point that I could feel _and_ hear his bones crunching beneath my grasp.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh! You fucking bitch!" he howled in pain, collapsing to his knees, as I continued to squeeze. He brought his other hand around and attempted to fight me off, but I was quicker. I grabbed his fist, bringing it in one fluid movement up behind his back, popping it out of its socket violently and knocking him to the ground face first. He was grunting and snarling the whole time, threatening to kill me. That just prompted me further.

"You don't get to threaten anyone anymore. Do you hear me, scumbag?" I whispered close to his ear, as he lay writhing beneath me in pain. "People like you shouldn't be allowed to breathe, but that's not for me to decide, so I won't kill you. But I can guaran-damn-tee, not a day in your life will go by that you won't think of me, and why I did this to you."

I stood up from the ground, pulling him roughly to his feet. I grabbed a handful of his crotch and twisted. That was going to leave a mark, permanently. He screamed like the little bitch he was, and begged me to let him go. I grabbed him by his throat and pinned him to the wall. "You DO NOT touch people without permission!" I squeezed tighter, not allowing any air or blood flow to his head. "You _will_ remember what I've told you, or I _will_ come back and teach you another lesson," I snarled, loosening my grip a little so that he could answer me.

"I w-won't, I p-promise. Please, j-just l-let me go," he sputtered, trying to speak and take in some much-needed oxygen at the same time. I smiled, loving that the tables had turned. It was always my favorite part.

"Good. Now it's time to go night-night," I smirked, as I picked him up over my head and threw him into a nearby dumpster. His head hit the metal with a thud, and he was out like a light.

"_Trash_ belongs in a dumpster," I said under my breath. Pleased with myself, I turned around, ready to head back and get Rosalie and go home. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Edward? What are you doing here?"

* * *

A/N: I just wanted to say thanks again to Dollybigmomma for her wonderful editing skills on this story. She's a rock star!

The next couple of chapters should be pretty exciting, so keep an eye out for the next update.


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Twilight...I just made her characters a little more badass.

Thanks Dollybigmomma for being such a super good, super quick beta. You rock!

Now...let's find out what Edward saw!

* * *

**EDWARD**

I had only planned on watching Bella from afar tonight. Subconsciously, I think I wanted her to notice me, though. I hadn't been very stealthy about where I'd sat in the restaurant lounge, and I stared at her unabashedly the whole time we were there. I could tell the second she felt my gaze. Rosalie had walked off, and Bella sat up just a little bit straighter. She glanced around the room several times, looking at the faces of everyone there. Her meandering eyes stopped the minute they met mine. I smiled, hoping she wasn't scared by thinking I was stalking her or something. Once I thought about it, though, nothing probably scared this girl. She was a bad-ass.

She instantly got up and began walking towards the booth where Emmett and I were sitting. I was not sure what I expected the first words out of her mouth to be, but I paled a bit when she immediately insinuated that I really was stalking her. Once I realized she was joking, I immediately relaxed.

We sat and talked for hours. It was easy to ignore the fact that there were two other people at the table with us, when I had such an angelic creature sitting across from me. We had so much in common it was ridiculous. She didn't share too much about herself, other than her likes and dislikes, but I felt like I had known her forever. We clicked on some strange level I had never experienced before.

When the night had wound down, and it was time to separate Rosalie and Emmett, I felt utterly deflated. It fought every instinct I had not to offer to walk them home. I knew she was capable of fighting off anything that came at her, but my chivalrous side was telling me it didn't matter. I managed to say goodbye, with her number programmed into my phone, only because I knew she wouldn't be out of my sight for long.

Emmett and I hung back a little, as we watched them walk off into the night. We kept our distance, as we watched a man who was clearly drunk step in front of the girls' path. I could hear his thoughts, and the things he wanted to do to them made my skin crawl.

I could tell that Bella wasn't looking for a fight. She tried to side-step him and pushed him off, but he wasn't having any of it. He was feeling invincible at the moment, endowed with copious amounts of liquor and whatever else his drug of choice had been. He wouldn't be deterred, and it looked like Bella had caught up with his intentions.

She carefully sat her friend down and motioned for him to follow her into the alley. Emmett and I ran quickly up to where she had sat Rosalie down.

"Stay here and watch over her, Emmett," I instructed him. "I'm going to go check on Bella."

I crept up to the corner of the building to see what kind of carnage she was unleashing on the miserable bastard. My heart caught in my throat, as I realized she looked like she was actually scared. She was cowering to him and shaking. This was not the vigilante I'd seen countless times in my mind's eye.

I was worried that maybe I'd been wrong, that she wasn't the one I'd been looking for. She fit the description perfectly, though, and there was no way I could mistake those eyes. It had to be her.

I crouched down low, not wanting to be seen, and skirted my way along the wall, so I could hear what was being said. I wanted to be able to jump in at any moment, just in case I was wrong about Bella. I flinched, as the guy suddenly grabbed her by the hair, ramming her head into the wall. I jumped into action, quickly coming out from the shadows, ready to kick some ass, but Bella had beaten me to the punch.

I crouched back into the shadows and watched in awe, as she brought him to his knees with the strength in just one hand. He screamed and threatened, as she continued her assault. I had seen her in action many times over the last year in others' memories, but seeing it in reality, it really hit home. She was larger than life. Her strength and confidence were unlike anything imaginable. She was a Goddess in steel-toed boots.

"Trash belongs in a dumpster," I heard her say, as she deposited the guy unceremoniously, and then turned to walk away. I could only imagine the pain that asshole was going to wake up in, if he woke up at all.

I snapped out of my mental musing and stood up quickly. I realized she would probably see me if I didn't get out of here fast. I didn't know if I wanted her to or not, but I didn't get the chance to make that decision. I was too slow, and she spotted me anyways.

"Edward? What are you doing here?"

I nervously searched my brain for an excuse. "We saw Rosalie sitting alone on the sidewalk. I was just checking that you were okay," I managed to squeak out.

"Oh. I-I'm fine," she said nervously. I was sure she was worried I'd seen too much of what she could do without the anonymity of her mask. I decided I would play stupid for now.

"What are you doing in the alley?" I asked, even though I knew full well what she had been up to. Fortunately for her, she had disposed of the trash, so he was nowhere to be seen. She would think that I was none the wiser.

"I thought I heard something," she said looking anywhere but at me. She was a terrible liar. She began walking closer to me, and I saw blood streaked down her cheek.

"Oh shit! Are you okay? You're bleeding!" I rushed up to her, pushing her hair aside to find the source of the blood.

She quickly swatted my hand away. "I'm fine. I just fell and bumped my head. It was so dark…and I couldn't see where I was going," she lied again, horribly.

"You really shouldn't go into dark alleys in the middle of the night," I scolded, playing my role, yet knowing that she was able to handle anything thrown at her back here. She just shrugged and stared at the ground.

"Will you at least let me walk you home?" I was hoping she would take me up on the offer I had purposely failed to extend earlier. I figured I would try and make up for making myself out to be a total loser of a cop who didn't walk women home in the middle of the night. "I feel pretty terrible that I didn't offer earlier. I'm not sure what I was thinking," I pouted, hoping like hell she would let me.

She nodded reluctantly and walked slowly back toward the street, where Rosalie and Emmett were waiting. She and I both knew it was for show, but she didn't know that I knew. That was the key. I had the feeling this girl would run like her ass was on fire if she thought her identity had been discovered. There was no way in hell I was going to let that happen if I could help it.

We all walked in silence to the little coffee shop where Bella and her friend worked. I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow, looking at her confused.

"Our apartments are above the shop," she answered my silent question. "Thanks for walking us home."

I nodded and smiled. She gave me a timid smile back. "Can I call you tomorrow?" I questioned.

"That would be great," she said, as she nibbled on her bottom lip shyly.

"Goodnight…again, Bella."

"Goodnight, Edward," she giggled and turned to take Rose out of Emmett's grasp, pulling her into her apartment.

"So, what did you see, Ed?" Emmett questioned immediately once the door was shut.

"It's definitely her. That jackass who went in the alley with her is currently taking an ass-whooping-induced nap in one of the dumpsters."

"What do you think we should do about him?" Emmett asked.

"I'm going to call it in to the station. They can pick him up for vagrancy or something," I answered, not really sure what to do. The asshole deserved more than one night in a jail cell, but there wasn't much that could be done, at least without a witness to press charges. I was pretty sure that was the last thing Bella would do.

I called the station and had the low-life picked up. The responding officer ended up having to call an ambulance to take the guy to the hospital, since he was unresponsive when they arrived. I wasn't really concerned with his health, so I parted ways with Emmett and went home for some much-needed sleep.

I lived in a one-bedroom apartment, just around the corner from the station. It was sparsely decorated, as I wasn't there very much. I had a bed, a couch and a very nice TV setup. Men had to have their priorities, you know. The kitchen was never used. The refrigerator stored my beer, and that was about it. It was a bachelor pad after all.

I entered my dark apartment, ready to close my eyes as soon as my head hit the pillow. I barely remembered to turn the deadbolt, before tromping off towards my room like the sleep-deprived zombie I was.

"Hello, Edward," a feminine voice came from behind me, waking my ass up pretty damn quick. I spun around, pulling my gun out of my shoulder holster at the same time. I aimed into the darkness, not seeing the source of the voice that seemed so familiar.

"Put the gun away, Edward. I'm not going to hurt you." A figure stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight streaming in from the window. "Is that any way to greet your mother?"

I stood frozen, staring at the women who had abandoned us so many years ago. "What are you doing here? You're not welcome," I huffed angrily.

"I need your help, Son," she pleaded softly.

"Bullshit! You lost the right to ask for help the second you walked out on us! How dare you!" I was seething. My mother had left for no reason, when I was eight years old. My father had been completely devastated by the blindsided approach she had taken. They'd had a really great relationship, at least from what I could remember and what he'd told me, but he'd been left with nothing more than a note saying she was sorry, and it was better this way. I had never forgiven her.

"There are a lot of things you don't know," she defended. "I did what I had to do, but don't think for one second it was ever what I wanted," her eyes glistened with tears.

"Then explain it to me, because I can't think of one good reason for a mother to up and leave her husband and children out of the blue!" I demanded. I was so worked up that I hadn't even realized I wasn't using my ability on her. I quickly put a stop to that and opened my mind up to her thoughts.

_'Please hear me out. I'll never forgive myself if I gave up everything…for nothing.'_ Her thoughts sounded so sad and desperate that I softened my stance and holstered my gun. "I'm listening," I prompted in a softer tone.

_'I know what you can do.'_ I jumped a bit, startled by the fact that she wasn't speaking to me, but thinking instead. '_You're not the only one who can do things nobody else can, Edward.'_

"I don't understand! How? Why?" I was starting to get worked up again.

_'Stop talking, Edward. Just listen to my thoughts. It's safer that way_,' she answered in her mind. I was stunned and confused, but nodded at her anyways, acknowledging the fact that I'd heard her.

_'I left you because I needed to keep you safe. I'm like you, Edward. I can do things, too.'_ I quirked an eyebrow at her, needing her to explain this further. '_It's easier to just show you.'_

All of a sudden, I felt a strange tingling sensation come over me. I had no clue what she could do, and I was a little unnerved. Before I had a chance to ponder too much on the sensation, I felt my feet slowly lifting off of the floor, my body seemingly weightless.

"HOLY SHIT!" I hissed under my breath. I was hovering about a foot off of the floor in mid-air. If I hadn't been so freaked out, it might have been rather entertaining.

_'I can move things with my mind, Edward. You can hear thoughts in yours, and your sister can see the future with hers.' _My ears perked back up at the mention of Alice. My mother must have noticed. '_Yes, I know where she is. That's why I've come. I need your help getting her out of there.'_

"She's still alive? Where is she?" I asked out loud. "Tell me!" I was ready to go fight an army if it meant getting my sister back.

_'Calm down, she's safe for now. We can't go in there unprepared. You have no idea what we're up against. We need a plan, and we'll need Bella's help.'_

"You know her?" I couldn't believe a woman I hadn't seen in over thirteen years knew about a girl I had only just met, at least in person, today.

_'I know all about her. She's like us, too. She can help.'_

My mother continued to explain the situation to me silently, while I soaked up every thought she had like it was water, and I was dying of dehydration. This woman had completely devastated our whole family when she'd left us, and it was hard to let go of the feelings of abandonment that came from that, but the more she explained, the more I understood her motives. The whole situation was beyond comprehension, but for the first time in a long time, I felt hope.

We were going to get Alice back.

* * *

A/N: Any ideas on what they are yet? They aren't vampires, but I'm curious to see what you guys are thinking.


	8. Chapter 8

You guys had some very creative ideas for what these characters are. Frostedglaze's guess had me laughing my ass off with "really drugged out circus folk"...so thanks for that!

I do not own Twilight...

* * *

BELLA

I was scared out of my mind that Edward had seen what I had just done. I knew it was foolish to do that without my mask on, but that asshole had left me no choice. I mentally berated myself for not listening closer, or paying more attention to my surroundings, before I did anything to him. Fortunately, it seemed that Edward had walked up at just the right moment. I had already thrown the trash in the dumpster, and I appeared to be alone in the alley for all Edward knew.

I sucked at lying, but I still attempted it just to be sure I hadn't been caught. Edward seemed to believe me and offered to walk us home. I was relieved he'd let the topic of my head injury drop, and equally pleased to find out he wasn't a selfish ass after all. He turned out to be the gentleman I'd suspected he would be.

He left me at the door feeling giddy. I was happy that he wanted to call me. I had never been happy about anyone of the male persuasion before, so this was uncharted territory for me. I closed the door, taking one last longing glance at his handsome face.

I decided to crank up the volume up on my ears, deviously, in order to hear if he said anything about me to his partner. I was sure guys talked about chicks, just like we talk about guys.

"What did you see, Ed?" Emmett's question got my undivided attention.

"It's definitely her," I heard Edward respond, and then he went on to summarize the scene that had happened in the dark alley. The scene I had thought he'd been oblivious to. Edward _had_ seen what I had done. He knew what I could do.

Without a second thought, I put Rosalie in her bed, crossed the hall back to my apartment, grabbed a duffel bag, and proceeded to fill it with whatever I could get my hands on. I had to leave. I had been found out, and nothing good could come of it. Leaving was my only choice.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had a couple of changes of clothes, the five hundred dollars I had stashed away in the toilet tank, and a box of Twinkies. Hostess happened to be very important for the state of my mental health, so I figured I'd better grab them.

I stealthily exited my apartment, ran down the stairs, and turned the corner of the building towards the front of the coffee shop. Jasper was standing at the door, his keys in his hand. He looked up at me startled.

"Where are you off to at this hour?" I stood frozen, not ready to deal with the roadblock he was putting up in front of my escape.

"What are you doing at the shop at two o'clock in the morning?" I dodged his question with a question.

"I couldn't sleep, so I figured I'd get a little work done," he said easily, but I could hear his heart rate pick up, indicating the lies that were spewing from his mouth.

"Fair enough," I shrugged, not really caring why he would be lying. I was just hoping he couldn't tell how spooked _I_ was. "I was just on my way to the twenty-four-hour bakery, I had a craving for a maple donut, and they're only served hot at this time of the morning," I countered with another lie of my own, slightly tucking my duffle bag behind me.

I walked past him calmly without waiting for his response. He shouted for me to stay safe as I walked away. I turned around to have one last nostalgic glance at my boss, whom I'd grown to really like over the last year, and I was sure I'd never see him again. He was pulling his phone out of his pocket, when I turned around. I kept walking and rounded the corner at the next block, stopping to listen to who he was calling at such a late hour.

"She's running," I heard him say. "Don't worry, she won't get far, but you have to get here now." I didn't stay to listen to the rest of his conversation. I took off as fast as my feet could carry me. To anyone who saw me, I just would have been a blur, followed by a gust of wind. The human eye couldn't track my movements, they were so fast.

Before I knew it, I was on the outskirts of town. I figured I had put enough distance between myself and anyone who might be looking for me, so I stopped to get my bearings. For some reason, Jasper knew I was running away. To make matters worse, he had someone else he was announcing that information to. I couldn't even fathom how he could know anything, so maybe I was just assuming the worst about what I'd heard? I was at a loss, and either way, I would have to leave.

I found my way to the train station, and I planned on paying cash for the next train that was leaving. I didn't care where it was going. I just needed to get the hell out of Seattle.

I sat in the terminal patiently, waiting for the three o'clock train to Spokane. I kept glancing around nervously, making sure I hadn't been followed. My paranoia was probably unfounded, but I had an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach that I needed to be cautious. With the things I was capable of, I could very easily be targeted by some covert government agency, and I'd be poked and prodded until the end of my days. I couldn't risk that, which was why I had tried to remain anonymous. I'd tried to help people, but apparently, no good deed went unpunished.

As I took another glance around the empty train station, I saw Jasper come through a side door, his eyes searching everywhere, until they landed on me. I jumped to my feet and tore ass back out into the night. I had no idea how he'd found me, and I certainly wasn't going to stay and find out.

I jumped on the tracks and followed them as fast as I could. They went down into a tunnel that was very dimly lit. It was fairly short, and I could see the moonlit night on the other side. Just as I was approaching the exit, something swooped down, picked me up and pinned me to the concrete wall of the tunnel.

"What the hell!" I yelled, fighting off whatever had me pinned to the wall. I realized quickly that there was nothing there to fight.

"Calm down, Bella. I'm not here to hurt you." I looked up to see a woman with a black hooded trench coat on. The hood shrouded her features in darkness, so I couldn't see her face.

"Who are you? How are you doing this?" I screamed, as I looked down at my immobile body, which was currently defying gravity, along with every other law of physics known to man. Then again, my body tended to do that on its own just fine.

Just then, Jasper caught up to us, and he was out of breath and looking wild-eyed.

"Jasper! Tell me what's going on!" I demanded.

"You need to come with us, Bella. We'll explain everything, but you have to stay calm," he spoke to me like I was a pissed off toddler throwing a tantrum.

Looking at the predicament I was in, I decided to play along. I was pretty bad ass, but even _I _couldn't fight against something I couldn't see.

"Fine. Let me down, and I'll come with you," I agreed reluctantly. This situation was exactly why I was so secretive. I knew one day that everything would catch up with me, though, and it seemed as though today was that day. I just hoped they wouldn't torture me. That would suck.

My body was lowered to the ground gently, and I felt the pressure that had been pushing me back disappear. I took a deep breath and readied myself to go look my possible captor in the eye. I walked towards the hooded woman slowly. The closer I came, the more her features came to light. I wasn't sure what I expected, but what I saw was far from it.

Beneath the hood of the black trench coat was a beautiful middle-aged woman, with one of the warmest smiles I had ever seen in my life. I had the overwhelming urge to hug her, when only seconds before, I had been ready to kill her.

"It's nice to see you, Bella. You may not remember me, but I've known you your whole life," the woman said in a sweet, motherly tone.

"Y-you know me?" I questioned hesitantly. I'd thought everyone who'd known me my whole life was dead.

"I knew your parents, dear. I promised them I'd look out for you," she said, as she reached out and touched my arm. "I'm Esme Cullen."

The name sounded familiar to me. I thought back to my childhood, trying to remember any friends my parents had mentioned. They'd kept to themselves for the most part, so there weren't many to choose from. Then it hit me.

"You were my mom's friend," I remembered out loud. "You had two kids you brought over to play with me."

"That's right," Esme confirmed, "My daughter, Alice, and my son, Edward. I'm glad you remember."

"They were fun. Kind of hard to forget," I admitted. "Why did you guys stop coming around? My parents weren't killed until I was sixteen," I inquired. I had probably only been around six or seven when I knew her, but I remembered thinking it odd that they'd just stopped visiting all of a sudden, with as close as her family had been with mine.

"That's a long story, but don't worry, we'll get it all sorted out. As a matter of fact, once I explain everything about what's happening, all of your questions will probably be answered," Esme assured me.

I thought about the situation I found myself in. I was scared, but she didn't make me feel threatened. A few minutes ago, I would have thought for sure that I was on my way to some underground government facility to be hooked up to monitors and whatever assortment of torture devices they might decide to use to test my abilities. I didn't get that impression now. Esme was obviously different, like me. She'd held _me_ against a wall without lifting a finger. I was no wimp, and no amount of human strength would have been able to hold me against my will, but she was obviously _super-_human.

"We need to get moving, though. It's not safe to be out in the open like this," Esme looked over her shoulder, making sure nobody was around I assumed. She was acting a little paranoid, which made me a little paranoid, wondering what exactly we weren't safe from.

"Just promise me, if I come with you, you'll explain everything, and you'll not try and hurt me or lock me up," I demanded.

She nodded. "I promise you, Bella. We mean you no harm, and we obviously need your help." She turned to Jasper and told him to meet us at the safe house. He agreed and turned and ran off in the direction he had come from.

"Now, let's get out of here," Esme said while grabbing me tightly around the waist. "Hold on tight."

I had no idea what she was talking about. At first, I thought she was giving me an awkward hug, but that idea was quickly dashed, as I felt my feet lift from the ground again, and we launched straight into the air. The city flashed past us under our feet, as the wind blew my hair wildly around my face.

"You can fly?" I asked rhetorically. She obviously could. I was currently about a thousand feet in the air, and moving at a pretty good clip, judging by the speed with which the scenery below passed by.

"Technically, no," she shouted back to me, so that I could hear her over the roaring wind rushing past our ears. "I'm telekinetic. Technically, I'm not flying…I'm moving my body through the air with my mind," she explained, as if it was the most obvious and normal thing in the world.

I just nodded my head, unable to fully grasp the reality that had presented itself to me tonight. For the last few years, I'd thought I was all alone in the world. I'd thought I was an anomaly, that nobody else in the world was like me, or would understand me. In one night, I had learned that not only was I not the only anomaly out there, but I'd also found an old family friend I had thought I'd lost. I wasn't alone anymore.


	9. Chapter 9

It's my birthday and I thought I'd give you guys a present with a new chapter! (Since I've been such a lazy douche and haven't posted in two weeks.) Yay!

* * *

**_BELLA_**

_Thirteen years ago…_

_"Mom! Alice and Edward are here!" I squealed, as I ran to the front door to greet my two friends. They had been coming over to play with me for as long as I could remember. We always had so much fun together. Edward was my favorite, though. Alice was too girly, but Edward liked to play cops and robbers with me._

_I opened the door excitedly, only to see sad faces looking back at me. Something was wrong. I looked up at their mother, and her face was just as sad as theirs were._

_My mother came up behind me and ushered everyone into the house. "Why don't you kids go on upstairs and play, while I visit with Esme," my mother suggested, but judging by the look on her face, it was more of a demand. _

_"Come on, guys," I motioned for them to follow me up to my room. The sadness in them was seeping into me, and I had to fight the urge to cry. I didn't even know what I wanted to cry about._

_"What's going on?" I asked immediately upon shutting my bedroom door. "You guys look like someone died." _

_"Something's wrong with mom," Edward whispered so quietly, I almost couldn't hear him._

_"Is she sick?" I inquired._

_"She's been acting funny," Edward shrugged his shoulders. "She packed bags for us and has them in the car. She wouldn't say anything, but I think she's leaving our dad," a tear slid down his cheek, and his voice cracked a little at the end._

_My heart sank in my chest. I didn't want to lose my best friends, but if their mother was going away, I was sure she would take them with her._

_"Shut up, Edward! We don't know that for sure," Alice interjected. "They haven't even been fighting. It's probably nothing," Alice choked up, as she spoke, too. It was almost like she was trying to convince herself of it, instead of Edward._

_I couldn't stand seeing my two best friends hurting so much. "Let's go 'accidentally' hear what our moms are talking about then," I decided out loud. "If something is going on, then I'm sure she's spilling the beans to my mom right now." I put a finger up to my lips, signaling them to be quiet. I opened my bedroom door as slowly as possible, in order to avoid the horrible creaking noise it made._

_All three of us tiptoed down the stairs and sat on the bottom step and listened. My mom and Esme were in the living room around the corner. They couldn't see us, but we could hear everything they were saying._

_"I can't let that happen, Renee! I won't go back with him!" Esme whisper-shouted. "If he found me, then he can find you, too. You need to be ready."_

_Edward and Alice looked to be just as confused as I was, as we listened to my mother's response. "You don't know for sure, Es. You're just being paranoid. Nobody's looking for us."_

_"I have a really bad feeling about this. Please, just be careful," Esme pleaded. "Is it alright if the kids stay here for the night, while I get this figured out?"_

_"Of course, but just promise me you won't do anything stupid." We heard them stand and begin walking towards the door then. We quickly darted back up the stairs, so as not to be seen._

_"Alice! Edward! Can you come down here for a minute?" Esme shouted up the stairs. They both gulped and took a deep breath, before gloomily walking down to their mother._

_I stood at the top of the stairs and listened, as they said their goodbyes. "I'm just going to take care of a few things, so you guys are going to stay here with the Swan's tonight, okay?" Esme looked like she was having a hard time keeping her tears from falling. Alice and Edward both nodded._

_"I'll be back tomorrow afternoon to get you guys." She gave them both a big hug, and with one last look at my mother, she walked out the door. _

_The next day, Esme hadn't returned as promised. Carlisle, Edward and Alice's father, came instead. His eyes were red-rimmed, like he'd been crying. The second we all saw his face, we knew that Esme was gone. It broke my heart, watching my two best friends break down into sobbing messes, when their father told them of their mother's departure. They left the house with their heads hanging low, mumbling goodbye. _

_"What happened, Mom?" I asked, wondering why a mother would just leave her husband and children like that. She spoke of going back to "_him_," but I just couldn't imagine Esme leaving her family for another man willingly. In my eight short years of life, I did come to know some things about a mother's love…and Esme had loved her kids. You could see it in every action and word spoken to them._

_"It's nothing you need to worry about, sweetheart." The finality in my mother's voice, and the tears in her eyes as she walked away, told me it was definitely something I _should_ worry about, but that I wouldn't get any answers._

_I didn't see my two friends again after that. My mother said that they had moved away, and we moved soon after that as well. I decided then that having friends was just too painful, and I was better off being alone._

Present day…

EDWARD

I drove as fast as I could towards the address that my mother had given me, after a cryptic warning saying to make sure I wasn't followed. Based off of the little she had told me of her past, I could understand that we needed to fly under the radar, so to speak, as much as possible.

The flying thing actually caught me quite off-guard. She'd said she had to go, in a panic, after answering her phone. She said over her shoulder that she would have a surprise for me when I got to the safe house, while doing a Greg Louganis-style swan dive out of my living room window. I ran over to the window in a flash, expecting to see my mother flattened like a pancake on the sidewalk below my fifth story apartment. She wasn't, though. I looked up just in time to see her trench coat waving in the wind behind her, as she streaked through the sky, out of my view. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder around here.

Once I shook off the strange turn my night had taken, I thought about everything she had told me, while I drove out of town. The day that my father had told us my mother had left was such a traumatic experience, I had done everything I could to mentally block it from my mind. I'd been so good at it in fact, that I wasn't sure I could even recall any of that day at all, until my mother began telling me of the events that had transpired that day.

_'I didn't leave you, Edward. I was taken,' my mother thought forcefully, 'by the same people who have your sister.'_

The surprise on my face must have been apparent. She quickly went on to tell me that our family didn't come by our powers by accident, and that it was why she and Alice had been taken. She didn't tell me the particulars of who had taken her and Alice, or what Bella had to do with anything, but that it would all become clear, once I got to the 'safe house' I was currently heading towards.

The house was located northeast of Seattle, on the outskirts of a little town called Sultan. It was situated several miles out, in the middle of the massive forest and rolling hills, which surrounded the town on all sides. It was a small log cabin that was rustic, yet modern-looking at the same time. There were no lights on, nor any other sign that anyone was around. My mother said that the door would be unlocked, so I parked my car and headed inside to wait.

I wandered around a bit and took in the small living, dining and kitchen areas. There were two bedrooms and one bathroom as well. The whole cabin couldn't have been more than nine hundred square feet, but with the small amount of furniture, and lack of decorating, the space felt roomy. I was antsy with the amount of nervous anticipation coursing through my body, though, so I stepped back outside and paced the small wrap-around porch, while I waited for my mother to arrive.

After about the fiftieth circuit across the porch, I heard a whoosh of air and the thump of feet hitting the ground.

"Mom! You're here!" I shouted while rushing towards her. I could barely make out her silhouette in the distance. It looked like she wasn't alone, though. My protective instincts quickly kicked in, and I pulled my gun out, aiming it at the second unknown person standing next to my mother.

"Put that down, Edward! This is your surprise," my mother scolded. I slowly put my gun down, as I kept walking towards them. Slowly but surely, the mystery person's face came into focus.

"Bella?" I questioned stupidly. Of course it was her. I'd know those eyes anywhere.

"Edward? What are you doing here?" Bella asked bewildered. My mother obviously hadn't explained much to her.

My mother chuckled at our "deer in the headlights" display. "Come on, you two. You're old friends. It's time you two caught up with each other," she said, as she gestured for us to follow her into the cabin.

Bella and I followed her silently, stealing glances at each other as we walked. I wasn't sure what she meant about us being old friends. I'd only just met Bella, but maybe my mother knew of the obsession I'd had with her for the last year. Whatever it was, I was about to find out.

"Sit," my mother motioned to the small loveseat nestled in the corner of the sitting room. "You two need to just shut up and listen, without interruption, while I explain this whole convoluted mess to you. When I'm done, you can ask questions. Understood?" The stare-down she was giving us left no room for answering in the negative. We both nodded like a couple of bobble-heads.

"Have you ever heard of a government project called MK Ultra?" my mother got right down to business.

"That's the government project that got shut down back in the 60's, right?" Bella acknowledged. I didn't have a freaking clue what it was.

"Yes, it is. But what the public doesn't know is that it didn't completely shut down," she went on to explain.

"Wait a sec," I interrupted. "Apparently, I'm the less educated one here, and I have no idea what in the hell MK, whatever the hell you called it, is."

My mother looked annoyed. "You can Wikipedia it later, Edward. I said that questions were to wait until I'm done. I'll explain what you _need_ to know about it now."

"Fine. Carry on then," I huffed, as I leaned back on the couch. My arm brushed against Bella's, and a waft of her delicious scent engulfed me with the movement, making it very hard to focus on what my mother was saying. But I tried.

"Bella, your parents and I were part of that project," she paused a moment, as if trying to figure out what to say next. "We weren't in it by choice. We were orphans, and they took us out of the foster system, so nobody would miss us. Unfortunately, what the public knows about MK Ultra, like the torture and killing of innocent people, barely scratches the surface of what our government did."

Bella and I both sat forward, as my mother prepared to tell us the rest of the sordid tale of her past. It was amazing to me that I had a connection to Bella through our parents. It was funny what a small world it could be sometimes.

"We were tortured. That much was true," she continued. "The publicized version of the MK Ultra agenda was that they were attempting to inflict mind control on the masses through subliminal messaging and whatnot. I'm sure that's what it started out as, but over the years, and with breakthroughs in their experiments, they started getting rather bold in their theories and techniques. They tried different forms of behavioral engineering through shock therapy, torture and even poisoning to try and get the human body to respond and evolve. All of these experiments culminated with us…the orphans that nobody missed." A tear fell from my mother's eye, as she took a deep breath before continuing.

I was in shock listening to her story, and I hadn't even heard the half of it yet. I chanced a glance over to Bella, wanting to see her reaction to all of this. Her face was frozen in shock, not even blinking.

"Their scientists decided that manipulating DNA, along with the torture, would force our bodies to evolve more quickly, making us better…stronger. They were trying to find a way to create a 'Super Army' of sorts. One that was unable to be stopped." She took another deep breath, while wiping the remnants of tears from her face.

"Right before the project was shut down, they realized that their experiments had worked. Your parents and I, along with a few others, began showing signs of powerful abilities," she looked at Bella as she spoke. "We tried to keep it quiet, but when they would torture us, we couldn't help but use our powers against them."

"How did you get away?" Bella broke the brief silence that had settled in the room. I flinched a little, hoping my mother wouldn't give her the ass chewing she'd given me for violating the "no questions until I'm done" rule.

"The government, for once, actually did right by us. They released us, gave us new identities and a large settlement for our silence. I stayed close to your parents, and I eventually met Carlisle, who gave me my two wonderful children," my mother smiled at me. "One day, I noticed that I was being followed. I thought I was just being paranoid, and I tried to ignore it. That was no longer an option, once I saw who had been following me. It was _him_. Aro Volturi. He was the one who'd run the project, and I knew the second I spotted him that he wanted us back. He wanted to finish what he'd started."

"I remember," Bella said out of nowhere. "You brought Edward and Alice to my house that day. We snuck downstairs and heard you talking to my mom. We…we never saw you again after that."

I was stunned. I remembered now, too. How could I not have realized that my brown-eyed vigilante was the sweet tomboy, Bella, I had played with as a child? I had so many memories fly back into my head at once, and the room began to spin. I had tried so hard to forget the day my mother had left, that in the process, I had wiped out all of the memories of my best friend as well. She had been everything to me back then. She had been the one person in the world I'd shared everything with. As I got older, I'd become sure she was just a figment of my imagination. Now, I realized, this woman had been taking up residence in my heart, and my mind, for most of my damn life.

"I remember, too," I whispered, my eyes welling up with unshed tears, as I looked over at Bella.

"Oh, Edward," she cried, as she lunged for me, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck. "I can't believe I didn't realize it was you. I've missed you so much!"

I wrapped my arms around her, whispering how much I had missed her, too. I felt like a missing limb had suddenly grown back. She felt so right in my arms, yet I was so unsure of what to do with that feeling.

"Surprise!" my mother shouted gleefully.

Bella and I, both startled, looked up at each other with trepidation. Even without being able to read her mind, I could see the fear and uncertainty swimming in her eyes. We both realized that our happy reunion was probably going to be very short-lived. My mother had brought us here for a reason, and after our first meeting in my apartment, I remembered, loud and clear, what she had thought…_'It's not safe.'_

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A/N: For those of you who don't know, MK Ultra is real, and is very eye-opening in regards to what our government is capable of. They used human beings in some of the most awful and gruesome experiments you could imagine.


	10. Chapter 10

This chapter is pretty intense, so hold on to your butts!

Big juicy thanks to Dollybigmomma, who beta'd it and said something along the lines of it kicking some major butt! Enjoy!

I do not own Twilight...duh.

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**BELLA**

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Edward was my childhood friend. I remembered missing him so bad, I had sworn off having close friends altogether, until I'd met Rosalie. I'd managed to block all of the good memories of my childhood out of my mind, to make the pain of missing him and Alice less potent. I felt like my life had ended that day, and in more ways than one, it had. Two days after Carlisle had come to pick up Alice and Edward, my mother told me that they had moved. We moved a week after that. My parents had said that it was time for a change, but I couldn't help but feel the depression that settled in on all of us. If that was what change brought, I didn't want any part of it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter.

The more memories that came to the surface from Esme's revelations, the more I got to thinking about my parents and their behavior right before they were killed. They had been very nervous and were fighting a lot. I'd tried to ignore it and pretend that things were fine.

I tore myself away from Edward's embrace reluctantly. I had to know the truth about everything. Esme seemed to know everything, and I wasn't going to stop with the questions I needed answers to, until I had all of them.

"Did this Volturi guy kill my parents?"

Esme looked surprised at my question. "Oh my," was all she said before taking a slow, deep breath. "I…um…I didn't realize that you thought…" Esme trailed off.

"What? Tell me what you know, Esme," I demanded. She was a very straight-forward person from what I'd gathered so far, and her reluctance at telling me about what had happened to my parents was a little unnerving.

"Well…I didn't realize you thought they were killed. I was told that they had taken you to an orphanage for your safety."

"Bullshit!" I yelled. "They were killed by a mugger! The police officer that came to our house that day said so!" I screamed. I was starting to get worked up. It seems as though nothing in my life was as simple as I'd thought. Everything was getting way too complicated for my liking.

"Your parents aren't dead, Bella," Esme's whispered words shocked me to the core. "They're with Alice…in the same place I've been held for the last thirteen years."

"I don't understand," I sobbed, wiping the tears that were escaping of their own accord. "They're alive? Why would they leave me?"

"They didn't leave you, dear. They were taken against their will, just like I was."

"Then we have to get them back!" I demanded fiercely, "Right now!"

"Calm down, Bella. We have to be smart about this. You have no idea what you're up against. The only reason I was able to escape was because I had someone on the inside working with me. We have to have a plan first," Esme tried to explain, but I couldn't see past the fact that my parents were still alive. I had to do something to get them out of there.

"Tell us what you know, Mom," Edward interjected. He put his arm around me and slowly stroked up and down my arm. It was amazing that with as worked up as I had gotten myself; Edward's touch calmed me down infinitesimally. I relaxed into his embrace and listened closely to what Esme had to say.

Before she could say anything, Jasper burst through the door. He was panting and sweaty. Edward immediately jumped up and pulled his gun on him.

"Put that away, Edward!" Esme shouted. "He's with us."

He lowered his gun, but kept a tense expression on his face. "We have to go!" Edward yelled out of nowhere.

Esme and I looked at each other confused.

"I heard on the police scanner, as I was driving here. There's a fire at the coffee shop!" Jasper gasped, obviously winded from his run to the house.

"Rosalie!" I shouted in horror. My best friend was there in her apartment, passed out drunk. "We have to get her out!"

Without a pause, Esme and ran out the door and grabbed Edward. Before I could blink, they were airborne.

"Come on, Bella, we need to hurry!" Jasper ushered me towards his car.

"No! I can run there faster than you can drive. I'll meet you there," I said not waiting for his response, before taking off like a bat out of hell towards the city.

I ran faster than I even knew I was capable of. I was scared out of my mind that something bad could happen to Rosalie. I had closed myself off from friendship for so long for a damn good reason. That reason was staring me right in the face now. I could lose someone close to me again. I couldn't let that happen.

By the time I reached the coffee shop, it was completely engulfed in flames. The firefighters were spraying it from all angles. I ran up to the first one I saw.

"Did everyone get out?" I demanded. "My friend was in there!"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. By the time we got here, it wasn't safe to send anyone in to clear the place," the fireman said somberly.

"No!" I cried as I ran to the side of the building. If they wouldn't go in, I sure as hell was.

As I rounded the corner, I saw Esme standing with her back against the adjacent building, trying to escape the smoke and water that was pouring off of the coffee shop.

"Where's Edward?" I demanded as I ran to her.

"He went in after her! He's been in there too long, Bella! Something's wrong!" Esme cried.

I turned and ran for the stairs. There were flames shooting out of the doorway at the top. I didn't hesitate, as I pushed my way through the fiery inferno, feeling the flames lick and burn my flesh as I went. My clothes went up in flames instantly, forcing me to tear them off, because they were slowing me down. I was gasping for oxygen, as I trudged through the hell on earth that Rosalie's small apartment had become. Unfortunately, oxygen was a necessity for me to be able to heal the constant flesh wounds the flames mercilessly inflicted. I had to find them fast, or we were all as good as dead.

"Edward!" I shouted as loud as my smoke-filled lungs would allow, while I streaked through the apartment, naked as the day I was born. He didn't answer me. I flung her bedroom door open and was met with a wall of fire. I darted through it as fast as I could, finding Rosalie and Edward lying on the floor next to a closed window. It looked like he had been trying to get her out, but they didn't make it. The room was scorching hot, and I could see the second degree burns already forming on their skin, just from the heat of the room.

Without a second thought, I picked both of them up and took a backwards leap out of the second story window. I held Rosalie, sandwiched between Edward and me, as my back broke through the glass, shattering it everywhere and piercing the already raw and burned flesh of my back. I struggled to keep them on top of me as we plummeted to the ground.

Bracing myself for the impact, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of smoke-free air, knowing I'd need all the help I could get to fix the damage the fall would do to my body. I just hoped that I would be able to cushion the blow enough for my friends to come out alright. The ground came at us fast, and I hit the pavement hard. I felt my ribs splinter and my pelvis shatter, as we hit the ground with a thud.

"Jasper! Over here, and hurry!" I thought I heard Esme's voice, but I couldn't be sure. I had never been in so much pain in all of my life, and I had no idea how I was going to fix myself if I lost consciousness. I struggled to hold onto it, but I was quickly losing the fight. Darkness overtook me.

Three days later…

"She's looking much better. Do you think she'll wake up soon?" I heard a voice speaking softly next to me.

"I'm sure she will, Son. She needs to rest. Her body will let her wake up when it's ready to," someone responded.

I was slowly slipping out of the black haze that had taken me over. I was having a hard time remembering exactly what had happened, when it suddenly hit me like a wrecking ball.

"Rose! Edward!" I sat straight up, freaking the hell out, remembering the not-so-graceful "Swan" dive I'd taken out of the window. I felt hands brace my shoulders and gently push me back down to the bed I was on. I looked over at the owner of those hands to see Edward's concerned face, shushing me and telling me everything was alright.

"You're okay?" I asked dumbfounded. He nodded in response and smiled. I was shocked at the perfection of his face. When I had found them in Rosalie's room, their faces were almost unrecognizable from the burns. I was so confused.

"What about Rose! Please, tell me she's okay!"

"She's just fine, Bella. She's in the next room and is dying to see you awake."

"I need to see her!" I demanded, as I got up from the bed and pushed open the door. By the looks of it, we were back in Esme's safe house in the woods. I plowed down the small hallway and found my friend, standing in the living room with a huge smile and a look of relief on her face, as she rushed towards me and pulled me into her arms.

"I'm so glad you're awake," she cried as she held me close. "I thought we were going to lose you."

I held her just as tightly, as I relished in the fact that I had been able to save my friend. Somehow, she looked just as good as Edward, with no signs whatsoever of the trauma they had been through.

"I don't understand? How are you not burned, or hurt?" I touched her face and held her arms out for inspection. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Did I dream the fire?"

"No. You saved the day," Rose smiled and gestured behind me. I turned to see Edward, Esme, Jasper, and even Emmett standing there smiling at me.

"What the hell? Am I hallucinating?" I shook my head and closed my eyes, trying to shake off the strangeness of what was happening. It didn't work. When I opened my eyes, they were all still there and chuckling at my antics.

"Sit down, Bella. Let us explain what happened," Esme motioned for me to sit on the small sofa, which gave me a serious case of déjà vu. The last time I'd sat on this sofa at Esme's request, I'd found out that my parents were alive and that my apartment as well as my place of employment were on fire. To say that I was a little bit leery to sit would have been the understatement of the century.

"I'll stand," I stated with finality. "Now, explain to me how Edward and Rosalie look like they could step out onto a model runway, when by all rights, they should be in the hospital with bandages covering most of their bodies."

Esme blew out a breath. "Why aren't you covered in bandages and lying in a hospital bed right now?" Esme countered.

I looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was playing at. I had kept my ability to heal a secret from everyone. I knew that everyone in the room, save for Emmett and Rosalie, were aware of my super-strength, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she meant by her statement.

Realization dawned on me. "You guys are…like me?" I croaked out, trying to keep my emotions at bay. "You can heal, too?"

"Unfortunately, no, Bella, you're the only one here who can do that," Esme replied with a chuckle.

"I don't understand. How are they okay then?" I questioned.

Esme went on to explain to me that she and Jasper had seen us as we were falling from the window. She was able to use her telekinesis to soften our landing a little at the last second, or Edward and Rose would have probably died on impact. They moved us all to Jasper's car, before any of the firefighters or paramedics could see what had happened.

Things went a little bit nuts from there. Apparently, Jasper had snuck over to one of the ambulances on scene to steal a syringe and had been stopped at gunpoint by Emmett. Esme saw what was happening and was able to remove the gun from Emmett's hand with her power and throw him to the ground, so that Jasper could get away. Emmett was a fighter, though, and he shook off the confusion of having an invisible opponent and quickly followed after Jasper. When he had gotten close enough, he saw all of our battered and burned bodies in the back of Jasper's SUV. He proceeded to flip the hell out, to the point that Esme decided he had to come with us. She picked him up, tossed him in the back seat, shut the doors, and hit the locks, without even blinking. Esme stayed in the back seat, restraining Emmett, while Jasper sped away, back to the safe house.

I was actually quite impressed, as Esme explained this next part. Her multitasking skills were pretty epic. With one eye, she was able to hold Emmett in place, while quickly drawing blood from me, then injecting my blood into Edward and Rosalie, all while Jasper drove like a raging idiot down the winding highway. Needless to say, I liked Esme immediately.

"So my _blood_ healed them?" I asked just to make sure I understood.

"Yes, it did," Esme confirmed.

"How did you even know to do that? I haven't told anyone that I could heal," I questioned, not even really sure I wanted to know the answer.

"You're just like your mother," Esme smiled. "You get it from her. She can heal herself, too."

I was in awe. I was just like my mother. She could heal, too. She was alive. Edward and Rosalie were alive, and I was, too. Things were insane, but awesome at the same time. I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that washed over me, though. My secret was out. My parents were being held against their will, along with Alice, and we unknowingly had just pulled Emmett and Rosalie into our fucked up little world. Things were about to get rocky.

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A/N: The fire scene in this chapter was the plot bunny that was rolling around in my head for months, that prompted me to write this fic. I hope you all enjoyed it, cuz there's plenty more where that came from. Let me know what you think!


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